{"id":49416,"date":"2022-10-07T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2022\/10\/07\/seven-questions-with-the-us-armys-counter-drone-boss\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:35:17","slug":"seven-questions-with-the-us-armys-counter-drone-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/interviews\/2022\/10\/07\/seven-questions-with-the-us-armys-counter-drone-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven questions with the US Army\u2019s counter-drone boss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Thanks to affordable material and the mitigated risk to humans, experts have pointed to drones as the future of conflict. Already, Russia and Ukraine have deployed drones on the battlefield, each seeking to increase its drone arsenal as their war approaches the eight-month mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For its part, the U.S. Army created the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office to address the proliferation of adversarial drones. The JCO came about after then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper in 2019 designated the Army as the executive agent for counter-UAS activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey serves as director of that office, and he spoke with C4ISRNET in September about what it takes to protect American interests against drones<\/a>. This interview was edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army\u2019s Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, focuses on counter-UAS capabilities. How is that effort going?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re going to transition what we\u2019re doing at Yuma [Proving Ground in Arizona] into Fort Sill, and that process is happening right now. We\u2019re starting to get the classrooms. They\u2019re starting the program of instruction development. We\u2019re working with the joint team across courses to make sure we\u2019re maximizing all the [program of instruction] capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Will the center\u2019s curriculum focus on different types of counter-UAS strategies, such as kinetic options versus electronic warfare options?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The curriculum will cover all of that. You\u2019ll have an \u201coperators\u2019 course\u201d that will really introduce operators to the spectrum of counter-UAS capabilities that are out there, really focus in on the systems the Army\u2019s currently fielding at divisions and the other services are fielding at their sites or locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re really excited for our \u201cplanners\u2019 course\u201d because, right now, we really don\u2019t have the planning or understanding of how to employ counter-UAS capability from a planner perspective, and that\u2019s going to be a critical piece. That\u2019s probably the course that\u2019s going to be stood up first because, right now, as we\u2019re putting capability out in our installation site, one of the biggest challenges is installation commanders having a planner that they can look at to do the employment of the capability and then lay out all the planning factors with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You recently talked about the need for more widespread knowledge across the force on counter-UAS systems. What is the JCO doing to facilitate that dissemination of training and knowledge across the entire force?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first thing we did was put out a strategy. The strategy was really the first document that we put out that framed the problem for the entire enterprise. Then we put out a handbook based off what we\u2019re doing forward in U.S. Central Command\u2019s area of responsibility, capturing all the lessons learned. We not only provided that for the CENTCOM area of responsibility, but globally to all the combatant commands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, we\u2019re on our fourth JKO [Joint Knowledge Online] module. If you go to JKO online, there are four modules there that span from operator-level familiarization all the way through policy implementations of employing counter-UAS capability. They\u2019re actually really good modules, and we\u2019re seeing a lot of interest out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\t